That's a bit of a leap. I'll agree that teams should be cautious based on his injury. But equating the last 5 games of DH is not valid. In fact, DH has averaged about the same minutes since his injury and close to the same rebounds. The biggest knock on DH his entire career has been his heart. He's always had the athletic ability but not the passion and he's definitely on cruise control now that they are effectively out of the playoffs.

Raps are my East team so I watch them when I can. DeRozan was absolutely phenomenal and clutch as hell. I remember we had a spirited discussion around here many years back when it looked like he might be available as a near salary dump.

Anyway what was striking (aside from the general ineptness of Dwayne Casey not leaving himself timeouts and leaving Siakam on an island to guard Blake Griffin twice in the last 30 secs and leaving a gassed Valenciunas in the game in overtime to guard Griffin on another key possession) was that the two teams tied, with 1.4 seconds left in regulation, passed the ball back and forth to one another with neither team touching it 3 times. If that makes sense. SVG had Griffin inbound the ball(a strange choice, you'd think he'd be a good lob candidate) and he threw it out of bounds. The Raptors then attempted a throw in from halfcourt as well and threw it out of bounds on their end. Griffin (again?!) inbounded and promptly threw another pass out of bounds. Raptors inbounded to a wide open Valenciunas who airballed a 3 point shot for overtime. I've been watching ball for 40 years and I don't think I've ever seen that. Mass silliness. Surprised the Ringer ICYMI didn't include it in their recap.

__________________
“It’s the Dirk Nowitzki effect on their offense. As a defense, you absolutely overreact to every situation he’s
in -- or even that he’s not in -- and then you lose all sight of your team defensive rules." --Erik Spoelstra

Annnnd this is why being in love with tanking has some serious downsides...

Even the 13th pick is like a top 5 pick for them since they can seemingly do no wrong in the draft...

And the flipside is the Mavs who couldn't sniff the top pick when Shaq came out...3rd worst record but of course picked 4th and got Jimmy Jackson.

The Spurs have pretty much made their entire rep from getting extremely lucky in the draft. Not only did they get the top pick with the 3rd worst record, they picked the year when Tim Duncan was coming out instead of the next year when Michael Olowokandi was coming out.

Then the Spurs spend the next couple of decades suddenly winning rings and becoming "smarter than everyone else". Funny how they haven't gotten close since Duncan declined/retired.

And the flipside is the Mavs who couldn't sniff the top pick when Shaq came out...3rd worst record but of course picked 4th and got Jimmy Jackson.

The Spurs have pretty much made their entire rep from getting extremely lucky in the draft. Not only did they get the top pick with the 3rd worst record, they picked the year when Tim Duncan was coming out instead of the next year when Michael Olowokandi was coming out.

Then the Spurs spend the next couple of decades suddenly winning rings and becoming "smarter than everyone else". Funny how they haven't gotten close since Duncan declined/retired.

But yeah...the Spurs in the lottery is scary. They tend to get lucky.

Luck goes both ways though. Landed Duncan, Dirk hurt his knee in WCF. They also had Fisher and Ray Allen hit crazy shots against them.

Ginobli, Parker and George Hill for Kawhi and a million other small moves were all examples of skill though. Its been a awhile since they really hit big in the draft though and that has been a big part of their mini-slide. Ironically they have sort succumbed to the Mavs formula of chasing past their prime Free Agents and their cupboard too is looking pretty bare.

Man feels like officiating is one of the key stories this season and I like that more and more players and coaches just F it and call them out consistently. I'm always amazed how bad (inconsistent) NBA officials are vs. soccer refs. And the main reason I'm thinking is overprotection. In EU soccer, refs have to be great, otherwise they get tons of shit (and literally things on the pitch) thrown at them.

In the NBA, there's no such thing. It's partially because US sports fans are different (and in many ways less hostile), but the league's behavior and constant fining is just so hilarious. Joey Crawford wouldn't have lasted a single gameday in Europe.

lol Corey Brewer is 32...you always think he is still that mid-20 talent that never reaches his overall talent peak but maybe he gets there some day...and then you remember he was allready on our championship roster

Luck goes both ways though. Landed Duncan, Dirk hurt his knee in WCF. They also had Fisher and Ray Allen hit crazy shots against them.

Ginobli, Parker and George Hill for Kawhi and a million other small moves were all examples of skill though. Its been a awhile since they really hit big in the draft though and that has been a big part of their mini-slide. Ironically they have sort succumbed to the Mavs formula of chasing past their prime Free Agents and their cupboard too is looking pretty bare.

I compare their other moves to things like the Mavs getting Dirk, Nash, Terry, etc. If the Mavs had started all that with lucking into Duncan there would be a lot more rings.

Filling in around Duncan is not the toughest job in the world. That's why I wonder why they stopped hitting in the draft after he got old. Coincidence?

Without Duncan, they are a team that found Parker and Ginóbili and won a lot of games but probably no rings. Could they have done what the Mavs did in the 00s without the Duncan luck to get it all rolling? They Mavs should have 2 rings and they did it without Duncan. So I consider what the Mavs did more impressive. (2nd most wins in the 00s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sefant77

Im really close to be absolutly done with the NBA.

Its a mickey mouse league. Waaaaay too many random 50:50 calls AND way too many wrong calls. It just kills everything...

I've been watching since the 80s and that's not new. The "star treatment" has always bothered me. It was crazy to watch the double standard for stars. I still remember a Mavs/Bulls game in the early 90s when MJ got to foul Ro Blackman on one end.....and Ro got called for a foul on MJ at the other end for doing pretty much the exact same thing. Bulls win with MJ making those late FTs. That was a fake Bulls win.

I think they have it all set in motion. Just need to dump Ryan Anderson and maybe Wric Gordon

Still no one is taking Andersons ass with the assets the Rockets have available. And no way Gilbert agrees to a garbage S&T around Gordon etc like the Clippers did with Paul.

Also, i dont see James wanting to get all this coittail riding blame joining Harden and Paul. He is going with George to LA. Then he tells them to dump Balls ass in Charlotte for the unhappy Kemba (one year left on his contract and told he is sick of missing the POs, so the Bobcats knew they have to trade him now). And thats even a fair value for Charlotte, players with just one year left before FA doesnt have much value anymore.

And since the Cavs would tear it all down they could easily trade for Love (also one year left before he has his PO). Probably not even take Ingram + Kuzma, just Kuzma and a future 1st etc.

Kemba
Ingram
George
James
Love

Thats a rock solid contender. And James can print infinitive ad money in the LA/Lakers market. Make the Lakers great again. Much better than joining Paul/Harden in the Houston market.

Still no one is taking Andersons ass with the assets the Rockets have available. And no way Gilbert agrees to a garbage S&T around Gordon etc like the Clippers did with Paul.

Also, i dont see James wanting to get all this coittail riding blame joining Harden and Paul. He is going with George to LA. Then he tells them to dump Balls ass in Charlotte for the unhappy Kemba (one year left on his contract and told he is sick of missing the POs, so the Bobcats knew they have to trade him now). And thats even a fair value for Charlotte, players with just one year left before FA doesnt have much value anymore.

And since the Cavs would tear it all down they could easily trade for Love (also one year left before he has his PO). Probably not even take Ingram + Kuzma, just Kuzma and a future 1st etc.

Kemba
Ingram
George
James
Love

Thats a rock solid contender. And James can print infinitive ad money in the LA/Lakers market. Make the Lakers great again. Much better than joining Paul/Harden in the Houston market.

Not sure about the Love part but man, the Kemba part makes total sense to me.

They play the Bulls B2B next -- if they win one of those games, the worst the Mavs can finish is #6, even if we win-out the rest of the season.

__________________
“It’s the Dirk Nowitzki effect on their offense. As a defense, you absolutely overreact to every situation he’s
in -- or even that he’s not in -- and then you lose all sight of your team defensive rules." --Erik Spoelstra